Friday, October 23, 2009

Hey guys! I’m posting on Friday this week because I’ll be down at the Boston Comic Con tomorrow with Tony! We’ll have a table set up for Coast City Comics so please come over and say hello if you’ll be around. Now on to something that bothers me…

See this little guy pictured to the right of me? That’s Puck and I could not care less about this character. I am now going to break him down in a way that would make his no doubt tiny, hairy mother cry out worse than when Gretzky went to an American hockey team.

First off he was a member of Alpha Flight. Alpha Flight is a Canadian super hero team. That second sentence is the joke. A Canadian super hero team is on par with arena football in my book. By that I mean they could exist and maybe some people would look at them but if they disappeared you probably would not notice. Arena football went bankrupt and is over by the way.

Second, his name is stupid. I get the reference to Canada’s favorite sport here by calling him Puck, dressing mostly in black and bouncing around a lot. I get the heavy handed comparison to a hockey puck. I don’t know how you could have missed it to be honest. It is like getting a slap shot to the face every time you look at this poor miscreant of nature. I enjoy campy things but this is something like a 5 year old would have came up with in art class. I would like to point out at this point that John Byrne made Puck. Good work John!

I don’t like the giant “P” on his outfit either. It is begging to be made fun of. This super hero is brought to you by the letter P! I can only imagine what any super villain would be thinking when fighting this clown. Here are some words that may come to mind; pee, puny, petit and pint-size. There are other words too but I don’t want to put anything too lewd on here. I mean I did use urine as one and to call anyone urine is pretty mean.

I also went to his wikipedia page in an effort to find something redeeming about this guy but unfortunately there was nothing. He has a pretty convaluted origin that included having an evil sorceror imprisoned inside him which is what made him short. I’m not making that last part up folks! Whoever wrote the article seemed just as confused about the characters history as you will be reading it.

Thankfully Puck was killed by the mutant Michael Pointer who had absorbed all the powers from every mutant who had lost them after House of M. It was a pretty short fight as he was killed in a couple of panels. You’ll see him under Sasquatch on the left. If you’re interested in reading that story we do carry the New Avengers trade where it occurred. It’s a satisfying read if you really don’t like Alpha Flight like me.

Maybe you’re thinking “Hey Action Chad! I love Alpha Flight so why don’t you stop being such a jerk to Puck and tell me how I can get my hands on some back issues!” Good news! I have it on good authority that we have a ton of Alpha Flight back issues. If you’re interested in picking those up then please stop in and ask for them!

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Halloween is only a couple of weeks away so I figured I would take some time to look at one of the more scary heroes in the world of comics, Ghost Rider. Ghost Rider is the spirit of vengeance in the Marvel Universe. He arises from hell through a human body when horrible deeds have been done to innocents in order to avenge them. He is also one of the most metal looking super heroes ever to be created. Let’s take a more in depth look at how awesome Ghost Riders’ appearance is.

First off the guys head is a flaming skull. The skull itself is a staple of metal imagery but then to add flames to it raises it to the next level of cool. Be honest, if you saw a biker coming at you with a flaming skull for a head you would probably wet yourself. There is no shame in that mind you, it’s expected.

The flame on his head never goes out either. What fuels this? My guess is that it is fueled by Ghost Rider’s self realization of how awesome he is. I’m open to other suggestions but I think my theory is pretty sound.

His outfit is a leather biker outfit which is also cool. Occasionally he mixes in some chains, spiked shoulder pads and or gauntlets that are so over the top it would make Judas Priest jealous. Spikes, leather and chains? Sounds pretty metal to me guys. He’s a walking metal album cover that spends his time beating up on the wicked.

How would a guy like this get around? Perhaps on an indestructible motorcycle that has fire wheels?? YES! It can also ride up buildings and blow through most walls! Who would not want a motorcycle like that! If you say no to this then you are probably dead on the inside.

He also wields a massive chains which can also be set on fire. Fire! So much fire is utilized by the Ghost Rider! Naturally this is used often when dealing on some vengeance on whatever fool makes the foolish decision to cross Ghost Riders path.

He also has a power known as the penance stare. While this isn’t apart of his appearance it is pretty bad ass. Ghost Rider will grab his enemies and shoot fire into their eyes (notice a theme with the fire yet?). This fire will make them relive all the sins they have committed in vivid detail which causes his enemies to experience intense pain and sometimes drives them insane. I’m into it big time.

Interested in reading more about Ghost Rider? We have several trades and plenty of back issues of his adventures. You may also want to check out the current series by Jason Aaron called Ghost Riders: Heavens On Fire. This series features the two Ghost Riders (Dan Ketch and Johnny Blaze) so you get two for the price of one! That’s pretty awesome and it can be found in our Halloween section located in the front of the store.

If you guys have any requests for what you would like to see a blog post about then feel free to email me at uglystupidugly@gmail.com.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

I’ve always been a huge fan of Spider-Man so naturally I spend some time digging through the back issues when I’m here at the shop. I started noticing something on the covers of of issues 312-333 (the majority of them anyways).

The “Non Mutant Super Hero”? Seriously Marvel? Did you really create a ficticious form of racism and then apply it to the cover of Spider-Man? Do not try and say you didn’t because you guys totally did.

I spent some time trying to find the exact answer as to why an editor would feel the need to add something like that to the cover. Unfortunately my search only resulted in a bunch of message boards where people argued back and forth as to whether or not Spider-Man is or is not a mutant. I was surprised at how heated these discussions had become; pro and con camps had definitely been formed. The official word from Marvel is here, he is an altered human and not a mutant. He was not born being Spider-Man so therefore he is not a mutant. It seems simple right?

The more I read these forums I began to realize that maybe the answer was this argument I was seeing. I remember there was a point in the stories where it was questioned as to whether or not Spidey was a mutant. Could it be that the masses became so fired up over this question that angry letters were written in for and against the idea of his mutantness? Judging from this message board I would say it is more than likely. The idea that an editor would react to these letters by taking one of their top franchises and then adding a special banner to their covers in order to disassociate any connection with another top franchise which was based upon a race of fictitious people, which were persecuted on a daily basis, in effort to calm the readers is maddening, but believable. The reality of it though is that it is discrimination or fictitious discrimination I guess because these people are not real!! The idea of fighting over a race that does not exist in real life as if it were real breaks my brain. The idea that real life action must then be taken to calm real people though causes my brain to then implode in on itself. Either way, I’m toast guys.

Marvel Comics is often viewed as being more realistic than their distinguished competition. In this case they subtly managed to show how racial discrimination can be used in the media even if this particular race does not exist. If it was not the original intention it can still be viewed that way and I guess that’s what this is really all about.

If anyone has any comments or any information regarding why this banner was created please feel free to stop on by the store and fill me in!